SEMINARY of the WILD EARTH
online & onland eco-spirituality certificates
"The time has come to lift that veil of fog and return to intimate relationship with the living world. More and more of us are taking our place, once again, as full participants in the web of life, which we remember is held together by love." - Victoria Loorz, Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred
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The Emerging New Story
Needs a New Kind of Spiritual Leader
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There is not much hope to be found in the old story. The story that has dominated much of the world for thousands of years — hierarchy, control, and separation of matter and spirit — has led us to a pivotal moment in time where we face challenges unparalleled in human history. We have been raised within this dying story, but our hearts know of a more beautiful world. That is where deep hope lies — that our hearts can open and speak to the living world and unseen realms around and within us.
This is a kairos moment — an opportune and deep moment in time where we turn and face the unknowing that. marks this time in-between stories, toward a paradigm that affirms the interconnected sacredness of all things. Only this deep transformation can fundamentally change our self, our communities, and the world.
The core of our ecological and cultural challenges is a spiritual problem that organized religion or politics is not going to solve. A new kind of spiritual leader is needed. Those called to co-create this new way are first called into the wilderness, like most of our spiritual ancestors.
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Seminary of the Wild Earth is for those who sense that they are holding the seeds for a new story in our world, in our religions, and in our cultures. The program is a safe container for exploring, questioning, wondering and remembering how to listen to the sacred whispers heard in and between all things. This one or two year program is a new kind of seminary that invites you to honor and nurture the seed of vision growing louder inside you, urging you into service to the New Story of the kin-dom of God — the realized vision of restored sacred interconnection of all things in beloved community.
Program Format:
YEAR ONE: Eco-Spirituality Certificate
Seminary of the Wild Earth begins with a foundational yearlong program aimed at deepening into your own eco-spirituality and connecting more deeply with the Place you inhabit. Online sessions bring participants through a process of inner transformation, shaped by invitations to saunter on the land, practices of reconnecting with the wild soul, provocative teachings from Victoria and wild luminaries, and intimate council sessions with a small group of fellow wanderers.
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This is a standalone program, with each graduate receiving an Eco-Spirituality Certificate. It also serves as a foundation for the vocational certificates.
Optional: Vision Quest
Nearly every culture has enacted some form of the Vision Quest as a rite of passage for those entering a new phase in their life. It is a deep immersion into the rhythms of the wild earth, a re-orientation of your own place in it, and a clarifying of our roles as spiritual leaders. Graduates of the Eco-Spirituality Certificate program are invited to embark on a guided vision quest as a way to honor this transition within themselves and to reaffirm their commitment to the wild earth.
YEAR TWO: Vocational Certificates
For those graduates who wish the continue the journey, Seminary of the Wild Earth evolves into a second year of stepping into your wild call. "Vocation" is more than just a job, it's your way of putting your spiritual call into action. Vocation is about living into the wholeness of your wild self in service to a world in need of your particular gifts.
Participants choose one of the following certificate tracks:
EcoSpiritual Direction
Certification
Eco-spiritual direction is a form of spiritual companionship in reverent conversation with the living world. The first and only program of its kind, this track is rooted and shaped by deep ecology and the wisdom of the wild. This is a fully certified spiritual direction training, offered in partnership with Stillpoint, which has been training spiritual directors for over forty years. Open to both existing spiritual directors and those seeking to become one.
Wild Guide
Certification
Step fully into your wild call as a new kind of spiritual leader. No matter what your vocation or area of expertise, your life experiences and gifts can be offered in service to wild mystery. This track will equip you to tap into the emerging perspective of interconnection and wildness and to apply this paradigm to your work and sense of leadership. The world doesn’t need another guru, but we do need elders - of all generations. This certificate is an initiation into your wild call.
OnLand: Wild Ordination Ceremony
Seminary of the Wild Earth concludes with an optional in-person ceremony at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Graduates will gather to mark the transition to the next phase of their lives though a ceremony of Wild Ordination. Unlike in the traditional sense where spiritual leaders are ordained in service to a religious order, this is an ordination into service of the wild earth. Surrounded by red-rock mesas and cottonwood trees, this ceremony is an initiation and a celebration of the journey we have been through together.
